b'may 25 - june 21, 2020Agriculture trAnsportAtion 17sury Secretary Steven Mnuchin us lumber imports in teus and U.S. Trade Representativelumber imports by port in teusCountry of Origin Q1 2020 Q1 2019 RobertLighthizerspoketoU.S. Port Q1 2020 Q1 2019Brazil5,485 7,488ChineseVicePremierLiuto Houston, TX 4,008 4,615 discuss various issues, includ-Germany3,179 2,902ingimplementationofthe Charleston, SC 3,112 3,101 New Zealand2,353 2,143Phase I trade deal. Both sides New York/New Jersey 2,108 2,341 Uruguay1,442 1,206agreed that in spite of the cur-Baltimore, MD 1,925 2,126 China1,314 1,479rentglobalhealthemergency, Norfolk, VA 1,801 1,951 both countries fully expect to United Arab Emirates959 1,149meet their obligations under the Savannah, GA 1,740 1,547 Czech Republic877 486agreement in a timely manner, Seattle, WA 1,534 2,036 Austria800 982according to a statement from New Orleans, LA 1,435 1,052 theOfficeoftheU.S.Trade Chile792 1,756Representative. A statement by Oakland, CA 948 1,144 Latvia698 168Chinas Ministry of Commerce Mobile, AL 922 677 Others5,050 6,393alsosaidbothcountriesare Others 3,416 5,563 Total22,949 26,153working toward implementing Total 22,949 26,153 the trade deal. Source: Descartes-Datamyne ButTrumpthrewcoldSource: Descartes-Datamynewateronthoseprospects (PUNCHcontinued fromnot provide a full account ofwhen he told Fox News, Ifdamage caused by the coro- volume from Chinas market. page 16) the events leading up to thetheydontbuy,welltermi- navirus, which he called theAnd if that market suffers fur-beneficialtoPennsylvaniaoutbreakofthevirus.Thenatethedeal. Verysimple.plague from China. ther because of the pandemic, hardwoodproducers,saidpoliticalfalloutisleadingThepresidentevendown- Unfortunatelyforthehardwood sales will likely be Rep. Fred Keller, who repre- sometoquestionwhetherplayed the benefits from theU.S.hardwoodsector,therecurtailedfurther.Plantsmay sents the state 12th congres- China is willing and able totrade deal with China, tweet- is no other domestic or inter- shut down or continue to scale sional district, in a statement. go forward with the deal. ingthatitwontbeenoughnational market that can make(PUNCHcontinued on The congressmans enthu- InearlyMay,U.S.Trea- to make up for the economicup for the loss of significantpage 18)siasm may well be misplaced. Annex6.1oftheagreement mentions seven specific cate-gories of manufactured goods includedintheagreementbutnotforestproducts.The eighth line item in that section, dubbedothermanufactured goods, sports a footnote that mentions hardwood lumber.Aswithothercatego-ries of goods covered under theagreement,thereisno mechanism in the agreement for enforcing specific buying levels so its unclear how the U.S. could ensure the buying levels spelled out. The men-tionofhardwoodlumberin a footnote indicates that cat-egory does not assume a high priorityforeitherparty.In anyevent,evenfull,good-faithcompliancewiththe agreementdoesntmean ChinahastobuyanyU.S. hardwood at all. The $75 mil-lioninmanufacturedgoods could be satisfied elsewhere.t ariFFe xCLusionsOn the bright side, China issued two tariff exclusion lists forcertainU.S.productsin February. List I includes seven hardwoodproducts,including oaklogsandlumber,cherry lumber, and ash lumber. Thats good news for the industry as farasitgoes.Butexclusion fromtariffsdoesntequateto purchase orders.Meanwhile, the pandemic has strained relations between the U.S. and China to the point that President Donald Trump threatenedtopulloutofthe trade deal. Trump and others have politicized the pandemic by trying to blame China for theoutbreakanditsspread totheU.S.EvenTrumps vaunted personal relationship withChinesePresidentXi Jinpingappearstobegoing down the drain.AgroupofRepublican senators introduced a bill called theCOVID-19 Accountabil-ity Act, which would autho-rizethepresidenttoimpose sanctions on China if it does'